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Armstrong closes in on tennis title

LOUISVILLE, Ky. ­— This is what it’s like to win a national college tennis championship.

“It’s been three years now. I don’t think there’s been a single day I didn’t think about it,” Mikk Irdoja said at the Top Gun Tennis Academy, site of the NCAA Division II tennis championships.

Irdoja made that observation Friday afternoon, a few minutes after sealing top-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State University’s berth in this year’s national final. Irdoja scored the decisive point in a 5-0 victory over Lynn University, of Boca Raton, Fla.

If Armstrong (29-0) can handle West Florida (28-2) this afternoon, Irdoja, the fourth-ranked player in Division II, can go out with national championships from his freshman and senior seasons.

But there’s a bigger bookend to consider: The third-ranked Armstrong women’s team (28-0) can give the school another title. It must beat top-ranked BYU-Hawaii, a 5-0 winner over Abilene Christian on Friday. Armstrong reached today’s final with an occasionally worrisome 5-2 victory over second-ranked Barry University, of Miami Shores, Fla.

Victories today would give the Armstrong teams a rare double ­— men’s and women’s champions in the same year. (Then again, it’s not rare for Armstrong, which won both titles in 2008.)

Winning the championship doesn’t mean you can explain it to teammates hungry for the same experience.

“You can do all the preparation,” Irdoja said. “All the work, all the practice, but if it comes down to you that particular day, I think it’s very difficult to prepare yourself. You’ve got to play with big heart. You’ve got to fight really hard. I don’t think it comes down to talent or shot-making. It just purely comes down to effort. If you can find that heart inside of you, then great things will happen.”

National championship day is very different, said his coach, Simon Earnshaw.

“There’s definitely an added intensity,” he said. “I don’t know if the quality of the tennis is better than the regular season. It ought to be.”

Earnshaw couldn’t quite explain it. Maybe it was the intensity, or the “circus” atmosphere, he suggested.

“I think sometimes you can get caught up in that and actually overplay,” he said.

The Armstrong women had a bit of overplay, or underplay, before putting away Barry, sending the nation’s second-ranked team (26-1) to its first defeat. No. 6 singles player Clara Perez handled Caroline Wendling 7-5, 6-3 to close out the match. At the time, Armstrong was up 4-2, with some of her teammates struggling.

“I was trying to not look at the scores of my teammates, because I get nervous,” Perez said. “If I lost my point, we were really close to losing. It was a big feeling for me just to keep fighting.”

Toward the end, one of Wendling’s teammates, watching beyond the fence yelled, tenderly, if that’s possible: “We all believe in you!”

But belief was not enough.

“I made a good first serve,” Perez said, “and she hit the ball into the net. I think she was dead (tired) at that point.”

Despite the drama, or threat of it, Earnshaw felt comfortable with the team’s fate in Perez’s hands. Even if her teammates faltered, Earnshaw figured she would save the day. If it took all day.

“Physically, Clara beats every girl out here,” he said. “She’s small, but physically she’s solid as a rock. She’s by far our best athlete. If Clara needs to stay there for four hours, then she’ll keep going.”